45 Quotes by Thomas Reid

It is a question of fact, whether the influence of motives be fixed by laws of nature, so that they shall always have the same effect in the same circumstances.

He knows a lot of people in these different facilities, ... Sometimes there are safety issues.

It follows also, that the active power, of which only we can have any distinct conception, can be only in beings that have understanding and will.

might not be an appropriate place for him to stay.

When, therefore, in common language, we speak of having an idea of anything, we mean no more by that expression, but thinking of it.

This is the philosophical meaning of the word idea; and we may observe that this meaning of that word is built upon a philosophical opinion: for, if philosophers had not believed that there are such immediate objects of all our thoughts in the mind, they would never have used the word idea to express them.

This is the original mosaic tile and marble.

The vulgar allow that this expression implies a mind that thinks, an act of that mind which we call thinking, and an object about which we think. But, besides these three, the philosopher conceives that there is a fourth-to wit, the idea, which is the immediate object.

If no other test or measure of the strength of motives can be found but their prevailing, then this boasted principle will be only an identical proposition, and signify only that the strongest motive is the strongest motive, and the motive that prevails is the motive that prevails -which proves nothing.